(*...and Jeffrey Osborne )
Chart entered : 15 August 1987
Chart peak : 63
For all her undoubted talent as a soulful interpreter of others' material, Dionne had never been consistently successful in the UK. After her first flurry of hits in the mid-sixties, she disappeared from the charts until 1974 when she scored one moderate hit with "Then Came You". We then had to wait until her storming comeback with the Barry Gibb-helmed "Heartbreaker" album, the title track reaching number 2 in the autumn of 1982. Subsequent albums had done OK but the only significant hit was the AIDS charity single "That's What Friends Are For " a US number one which reached number 16 here.
"Love Power" was the lead single for her duet-heavy album, "Reservations For Two". It was written and arranged by long-time collaborator Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager. Her duetting partner was US soul singer Jeffrey Osborne; this was also the last of his half dozen hits. It's slick, adult pop soul and starts off in quite an interesting way with both singers the parties to a break-up and pondering what would happen if they picked up the phone. Unfortunately the chorus when it arrives is crushingly dull and there's only half a verse more to take the story further before a depressingly generic sax solo. It just sounds like its illustrious writers got bored halfway through the song and couldn't be bothered to develop it fully. It did better in the US where it reached number 12, her last Top 40 placing there.
Her follow-up was the album's title track. a duet with US singer/ producer Kashif, sixteen years her junior. It's more of a ballad with a better chorus than its predecessor but nothing to set the world alight. It reached number 62 in the US. A third duet single "Another Chance To Love" with ex-Shalamar singer Howard Hewlett was released . Written by Albert Hammond and Sue Shifrin , I think it's the best of the trio with a bit of bite in the music but it failed to register on both sides of the pond.
In 1989 Dionne released a compilation album "The Love Songs" trailed by a second duet with Osborne. Written by Bacharach, Bayer Sager and Gerry Goffin it's just shlock , five middle-aged talents sitting on their laurels and churning out tasteful easy listening fodder. It failed to chart although that didn't hurt sales of the album which reached number 6 in the UK , second only to "Heartbreaker " in terms of chart position.
In the US she released a different compilation of her work between 1979 and 1990. There were two new tracks released as singles in 1990. "I Don't Need Another Love" is a collaboration with the ( Detroit ) Spinners and sounds like an early seventies soul track re-tooled with an eighties production. "Walk Away" is a gloopy R & B ballad. Neither raised much interest and the album only made number 177 in the US. Later in the year Dionne released the self-explanatory "Dionne Warwick Sings Cole Porter". It's a listenable marriage between Tin Pin Alley and modern production with Dionne in great voice but it was a serious career misstep. It was her last album of new material to chart in the US reaching 155 but it seemed to alienate her existing audience without picking up a new one.
In 1991 Arista allowed her to make a one-off single in Europe with Dieter Bohlen from Modern Talking now trading under the name Blue System. She does most of the singing on the dreary ballad "It's All Over" which only charted in Germany , reaching number 60. At the same time she began a side career as spokesman for the Psychic Friends Network which was financially lucrative for a time but Dionne later became distressed that public recognition was deriving from that rather than her music .
In January 1993 she released a new album "Friends Can Be Lovers". Helmed by Clive Davis it represents the last attempt to put Dionne back in the mainstream with a host of starry collaborators and up to date production. The first single "Sunny Weather Love" was hyped as Bacharach and David's first song for her since 1972 and it isn't a bad pop soul track but it failed to trouble the chart. The second single, the risque "Where My Lips Have Been" sounds a bit like Tina Turner's Private Dancer and indicated that the 52 year old's vocal range was diminishing. The third single was the title track recorded with Lisa Stansfield's production team; it too is perfectly listenable but failed to resuscitate the album. It didn't chart, a conspicuous failure. She was also hit by a news report that her AIDS charity, the Warwick Foundation was misusing funds. She claimed the report was racially motivated and an IRS investigation found nothing wrong. In December that year she did a Christmas concert as guest of Placido Domingo ( replacing Diana Ross the previous year ) at the Hofburg Palace, Vienna. It was released as a classical LP "Christmas in Vienna II" to moderate chart success in Europe ( including the UK where it reached number 60 ).
Dionne completed her contract with Arista in 1994 with a rather desperate attempt to move into the Latin market on the album "Aquarela do Brasil". Apart from a ( very good ) Bacharach-Bettis song "Captives Of The Heart" , the songs are all Latin tunes, though largely translated. Dionne sounds OK on the slower songs but seriously mismatched with the uptempo material. It sank like a stone and Dionne was cast adrift.
With no record deal and her vocal powers fading , Dionne had only her legend status to trade on. Interest in her back catalogue remained buoyant as another compilation "The Essential Collection " made number 58 in the UK in 1996. Her appearances as a guest on other artists' records were drying up ; the last one appears to have been a track on B.B. King's 1997 album Deuces Wild.
In 1998 she started re-recording her old hits for the cheap CD market although the first one "Dionne Sings Dionne" included some new tracks. The very dreary ballad "I Promise You " was released as a single as was "High Upon This Love" a vocal version of the theme to U.S. soap The Bold and the Beautiful.
Neither made the chart but she did scrape a last chart appearance in the US charts that year with "What The World Needs Now Is Love" , a charity single which reached number 87. Credited to Dionne Warwick and the Hip Hop Nation United, it features Dionne drearily intoning the song while various rap illuminati including Coolio and Big Daddy Kane do their thing over the top of her.
The turn of the millennium was a very lean time. Neither her "new" albums nor compilations were charting until "Heartbreaker : The Very Best of Dionne Warwick" reached number 32 in the UK. That same year she became a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations ' Food and Agricultural arm.
In 2006 she got a deal with Concord for "My Friends And Me " an album of duets on her old hits with female artists. It proved she had an impressive address book with Gloria Estefan, Cyndi Lauper and Kelis amongst the guests but it didn't sell and Concord didn't take up their option on a similar album with male partners. Another compilation made a minor mark in the UK charts.
In 2007 she got together with her Houston cousins for the single "Family First" from the Daddy's Little Girls soundtrack. It's difficult to listen to it without bringing up your lunch. Despite Whitney's presence, it mercifully failed to chart. In 2008 yet another compilation made number 27 in the UK.
In 2008 she made a gospel album "Why We Sing" featuring a last contribution by her sister Dee Dee who died in October that year.
Three years later she made a jazz covers album "Only Trust Your Heart" and appeared on The Celebrity Apprentice 4 where that man whose name I can't bear to write sent her packing after the fourth task.
In 2012 she released "Now" an album celebrating 50 years in the business with a smattering of new tracks amongst the re-recordings. One of them "Is There Anybody Out There ? " an unremarkable pop soul track was released as a single. It didn't chart but the album reached number 57 in the UK, her last chart action anywhere despite its nomination for a Grammy in the "Traditional Pop" category in the US. In May that year she came to London for the World Hunger Day concert and performed a duet with X-Factor muppet Joe McElderry on a Tony Hatch composition "One World One Song" which was released as a single. I didn't get to the two minute mark before having to turn it off.
With her reluctance to do much touring, Dionne had been skating on thin ice financially for years, particularly in relation to her taxes and in 2013 she had to file for bankruptcy. That didn't stop her putting out another album of duets with famous names on her old songs"Feels So Good" the following year. "A House Is Not A Home" ( with Ne-Yo ) and "Hope Is Just Ahead" ( with Billy Ray Cyrus ) were released as singles.
Dionne Warwick is now 75.
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